BJP says headed toward ‘big victory’ in upcoming polls, praises PM Modi

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 7

The BJP on Sunday said the party is headed towards a “big victory” in the states due for polls next year, giving ambitious organisational targets to cadres ahead of elections to key Assembly polls in 2022 and the general elections in 2024.

Repeating Home Minister Amit Shah’s words as the president, BJP president JP Nadda said ‘utkarsh abhi baki hai’ (the best is yet to come). In his valedictory speech at the party national executive meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed confidence in the “reporting” by leaders of five poll-bound states and told the cadres to become a “bridge of faith for common man”.

In his presidential address, Nadda said BJP has constituted booth-level committees for 85 per cent of the 10.40 lakh booths in the country and the remaining 15 per cent will be completed by December 25. The BJP will also constitute ‘panna’ (page) committees on the lines of Gujarat, the work for which will finish by April, 2022. The BJP is also “institutionalising” PM Modi’s ‘mann ki baat’ radio programme on booth-level from May 2022.

Significantly, the political resolution moved by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath included the “resolve of victory in upcoming elections”.

“We are headed towards a big victory in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur on the strength of development work of our governments and the organisation. All the surveys are also pointing towards this,” stated the 18-point resolution.

Praising the Prime Minister, the resolution slammed Opposition parties, condemning their “opportunist politics”, accusing them of “derailing India’s vaccination programme”.

“They were not to be seen on the streets during Covid, but did everything to create confusion on Twitter. At a time when Prime Minister was trying so hard to build trust within the country and image of the country, they were trying to weaken it,” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, briefing about the resolution

It lauded the Prime Minister, including for India’s position at COP26 in Glasgow and foreign policy, Covid management and vaccination programmes, providing “corruption-free government”, welfare and development works and pro-farmer steps. “Under the leadership of PM Modi, an atmosphere of safety, peace and prosperity has been created in Jamp;K,” it said.

Moving the resolution has placed Adityanath in the top league of the BJP leadership. In the past senior leaders like Rajnath Singh did the honours. In fact, Adityanath was supposed to attend the meeting virtually from Lucknow like other BJP chief ministers. However, to everyone’s surprise, he was present at the venue, a move that indicated support by PM Modi and his place in hierarchy.

Meanwhile, the PM told cadres to move forward with ‘sewabhav’ and reposed faith in the “reporting” by chief ministers and state presidents of the poll-bound states on works being done by respective governments and state-level organisations .

The BJP is not centered around any family and its values are ‘sewa, sankalp and samarpan’ (service, resolution and commitment), the PM said, asking party members to become a bridge of faith between the party and the common man. He too expressed confidence that the saffron will win the trust of people in the upcoming assembly polls.

Meanwhile, a ‘sentimental’ Nadda thanked people of West Bengal and assured them that the party will “stand by them” and “save them in a democratic way, giving an apt reply to anarchist elements in the next elections”. There are some challenges before the party like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra and Odisha, places where the ‘sangathan’ (organisation) has to become stronger, Nadda said.

As many as 342 members registered digitally for the meeting, the first one since the Covid pandemic.

Veteran leaders LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi attended from their residences.

BJP leaders were given books on India’s position at COP 26, its economy and the vaccination programme.